Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gas monitoring system using a plurality of gas sensors (e.g., hydrogen sensors), and further relates to a gas monitoring system and a gas monitoring method that can be applied suitably to a fuel cell vehicle, etc.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, green wave activities have been proposed, e.g., from the standpoint of reducing CO2 emissions, etc. To this end, environmentally friendly fuel cell vehicles are drawing attention.
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-071413 (hereinafter referred to as JP2006-071413A), in relation to a fuel cell vehicle equipped with a fuel cell system, the necessity of detecting hydrogen concentration (gas concentration) at a plurality of positions within the vehicle is described.
In the fuel cell vehicle disclosed in JP2006-071413A, at each of respective gas detection positions, a lower end (open front end) side is provided for each gas channel, and an upper end side of each gas channel extends to an inlet port of a channel switching device such as a rotary valve. An outlet port of the channel switching device is connected to a detection channel at which one hydrogen sensor and a suction pump are provided (paragraph of JP2006-071413A, FIG. 1).
In addition, the inlet port of the channel switching device is switched successively to the outlet port. While gas is drawn in by the suction pump, the hydrogen sensor detects the hydrogen concentration in each of the gas channels (paragraph [0029] of JP2006-071413A).
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-149071 (hereinafter referred to as JP2003-149071A) discloses a gas leakage detection apparatus. In the gas leakage detection apparatus, hydrogen sensors are provided at respective gas detection positions in a fuel cell vehicle. Electric wires for transmitting signal outputs from the hydrogen sensors are wired to a control unit (paragraphs [0018], [0019] and FIG. 1 of JP2003-149071A).